Autonomous vehicle safety platform system and method

Abstract

A system 100 for autonomous vehicle operation can include: a low-level safety platform 130 ; and can optionally include and/or interface with any or all of: an autonomous agent 102 , a sensor system, a computing system 120 , a vehicle communication network 140 , a vehicle control system 150 , and/or any suitable components. The system functions to facilitate fallback planning and/or execution at the autonomous agent. Additionally or alternatively, the system can function to transition the autonomous agent between a primary (autonomous) operation mode and a fallback operation mode.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A system comprising:
 a vehicle comprising a set of sensors;   an autonomous computing system communicatively coupled to the set of sensors, the autonomous computing system configured to determine an operational plan and a set of fallback plans based on measurements from the set of sensors; and   a lower-level control platform comprising an embedded fallback controller and a memory, the lower-level control platform communicatively coupled to the autonomous computing system and configured to:
 in a nominal operational mode, control the vehicle based on the operational plan and store the set of fallback plans at the memory; 
 determine satisfaction of a trigger condition, and, in response, transition from the nominal operational mode to a fallback operational mode; and 
 in the fallback operational mode, autonomously control the vehicle with the embedded fallback controller to deviate from the operational plan based on the set of fallback plans stored at the memory.